


Another Sky

by NotRover



Category: Lego Elves: Secrets of Elvendale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Virtual Reality, F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-21 15:03:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11946750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotRover/pseuds/NotRover
Summary: After Emily's sister is kidnapped by the Goblin King, Emily and her party must complete Elvendale's ultimate quest.  The reward? One wish.  With the fate of the game left to Emily by her grandmother hanging in the balance, she must find a way to rescue both her sister and Elvendale itself.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's crazy to think I'm the first person posting a Lego Elves fic, but I guess you have to create the kind of content you want to see. Anyway, a huge thank you to @221bdisneystreet and @angstinspace for helping me develop and edit this AU - it would never have gotten off the ground without them!
> 
> The title comes from There is Another Sky by Emily Dickinson, which gives me a very Elvendale vibe~

“I miss her too, honey.” Emily’s mom enveloped her in a hug on the couch, pulling her close. Her arms were a comforting presence around Emily, who quickly buried her face in her mother’s shoulders in an attempt to hide her tears. Her throat felt tight, clogged with grief as she attempted to choke down her sobs. 

There would be no more summers at her grandmother’s house, no more curling up on the couch as she told stories. No more of her warm hugs, her gentle reassurances, or her quiet lullabies. The loss hit Emily hard; it felt as if there was a gaping wound in her chest.

While her mother’s arms were a protective barrier around Emily, they could do little to ease the sting in her heart. Her father patted her back awkwardly in an attempt to soothe her. Emily appreciated the effort, but soon found herself stifled by the physical contact on both sides. Gently, she extricated herself from her mother’s embrace, but continued to sit next to her with their legs touching gently.

Her mother cleared her throat. “Your father and I were thinking that you might like to have this. We thought it might be a way for you to stay connected with her.”

Emily’s gaze traveled from her mother’s grief-stricken face down to her hands, where she had pulled out a slender, rectangular object from somewhere nearby. Numbly, Emily took the smooth case from her mother to examine it.

“Elvendale” was emblazoned on the game case in bold letters, right above a group shot of five characters. Four of them appeared to be manipulating different elements, while the fifth seemed to simply have a halo of light around her.

Elvendale wasn’t a name unfamiliar to Emily - it was a popular game, one that quite a few kids at her school played in their free time. Apparently, it was one of the best virtual reality games on the market. The only problem with that was…

“But we don’t have a VR set,” Emily reminded her mom, growing more puzzled as she continued to hold the game. “And how is this supposed to help me connect with Grandma?” Emily wondered if this was some tactic to replace her misery with confusion - if so, it seemed to be working, at least temporarily.

This time, it was Emily’s father who answered. “Yes, we do. Or at least, we do now. Your grandmother left us her VR set when she passed.” Still perplexed, Emily wrinkled her forehead. She hadn’t even known that her grandmother had owned a VR set. 

Obviously sensing her confusion, her father added, “The reason she had one was because she helped develop that game with her sisters.”

Emily’s eyes widened momentarily in shock, and she looked back down at the case. She started tracing an abstract shape on the game cover with her index finger. “Then… how come I never knew she helped develop this game? It’s not as if I’ve never heard of this game before - it seems like everyone I know plays it.”

Her parents exchanged guilty looks before her father answered, “We asked her not to tell you or your sister. Your mother and I didn’t want you getting obsessed and ignoring your schoolwork. And we knew you’d want to play if you found out she helped create the game. Your grandmother respected our decision and never told you. But now that you’re older, and considering the circumstances, we thought it might be best if we changed our minds.”

Emily swallowed heavily. It hurt a little to know that she’d purposefully been kept from this part of her grandmother’s life, but now she could only feel grateful she’d be given something to help her hold on to the memory of her grandmother. 

“Thank you.” Emily’s voice sounded unusually small. She clutched tighter onto the game case, fingers turning white with the force of her grip. She squeezed once and then set the game back in her lap, afraid of breaking the case.

Her mom placed a hand on Emily’s leg and gave a gentle squeeze. “If you ever want to talk about it…” 

Emily nodded jerkily, vision going blurry. “Yeah. Um, thank you.”

She levered herself up off the couch. 

“I’m just gonna -” Emily jerked her thumb in the direction of her room. She didn’t finish her sentence, but she didn’t need to. Her parents gave her soft, sad smiles in understanding.

Emily had never fled a room faster in her life.

 

Emily wondered if her grandmother had ever played her own game, because the VR set she had left them seemed to be practically untouched. It was still exceedingly shiny and there were no scratches or even fingerprints to be found on the smooth metal. As she pulled the helmet from its case, the silver metal was cool to the touch against her fingers. 

She rested her forehead against the helmet and closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She stayed like that for a minute and then pulled it on.

As she lay back against her bed, the darkness was overwhelming. Emily found herself feeling claustrophobic for a brief moment before a bright light assaulted her vision. She blinked once, twice, until her eyes adjusted.

“Welcome.” A cool, almost robotic voice echoed in the empty chamber Emily now found herself located in. The walls were all a metallic gray, broken up only by a grid pattern seemingly embossed into them. 

Emily held her hands in front of her face, in awe of how realistic they appeared. It was almost creepy how well the helmet’s body scan seemed to capture everything. A faint, familiar scar on the back of her hand was present, even in the game.

“Please choose a username.”

Emily jumped as a semi-transparent textbox sprung into place in front of her face. A keyboard was level with her chest, numbers and symbols seemingly pressuring her to type. Her fingers hovered an inch above the keyboard and she licked her lips. 

After a moment of thought, Emily began to type. After pressing enter and confirming her choice, the voice spoke again. 

“Welcome, Emily. Please choose a class.”

The screen that popped up this time was noticeably larger than the textbox or the keyboard had been. The top of the screen read “Fire Mage”, and below Emily skimmed the page, pausing only to try and read the magic skill tree. It seemed to be a primarily offensive type class, though it seemed like there might be interesting spell applications dealing solely with the heat and the light given off from the flames.

Emily flipped to the next page. “Earth Mage”. It seemed a little more versatile than fire magic did, as it had better defensive spells. The spells ranged from stone and crystal based spells to plant manipulation. Emily found herself thinking about how to strategize learning earth spells - would it be better to focus on one type of earth magic, or to be more rounded, like a jack of all trades?

The third class listing was “Water Mage”. Like earth magic, water magic was more balanced in terms of offensive and defensive capabilities. And there was a subset of ice magic spells that looked useful. 

Emily lingered on the fourth page (“Wind Mage”), fascinated by the stealth spells available to the class. There were no defensive spells, but the other spells were designed to make getting a hit in on a Wind Mage difficult. 

Emily found herself leaning towards the Wind Mage class, but changed her mind when she reached the fifth and final page. 

“Light Mage”. 

As she read through the description, Emily felt something warm bloom in her chest. It was obvious that her grandmother had had a hand in designing this particular class of characters. It didn’t take long for Emily to make her choice. 

“Character creation complete. Welcome to Elvendale.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's a fairly large timeskip between the first chapter and this one. Hopefully it should be clear, and there shouldn't be any major timeskips after this.
> 
> A huge thank you to @angstinspace and @221bdisneystreet for beta-ing this chapter - your help and support is the only reason this fic exists!

“Hey guys, Emily’s back!” Azari called out excitedly when she saw Emily log in. Emily felt a familiar warmth bloom in her chest when she saw her friends again. 

It had been six months since Emily had first logged into the game and met Azari, Aira, Farran, and Naida, but it felt like Emily had known them all much longer. Despite the others knowing each other in real life, they had immediately welcomed Emily into the group and made her feel like one of them. 

“Hey, Emily!” Naida greeted her warmly. “We’re just making sure we have any supplies we might need for our quest later. Want to double check your pack before we leave?”

“Yeah, sounds good!” They had all done preliminary packing the day before, but Emily wanted to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. Since they were going to gather plants, it was more important to make sure there was empty space in their bags to put items in, but it never hurt to be prepared for any unexpected contingencies, especially in Elvendale. 

It didn’t take long for all of them to put their bags together, and soon they were gathered outside of the treehouse and looking at one of Naida’s maps. 

“It looks like what we’re looking for should be over there,” Naida said, pointing to a section of the forest not far from their treehouse. Emily leaned over the map to get a closer view of where they were headed. 

“Hey, she looks just like a mini-you!” When Emily realized Azari’s comment was directed at her, she whirled around and stared, startled to be facing a shorter version of herself.

“Sophie! What are you doing here?” It was disconcerting to see her sister here, clad in the brown trousers and white, long-sleeved tunic all new players wore, instead of her everyday clothes, though Sophie’s hair was still pulled back into a familiar ponytail. 

“Well duh, I’m playing Elvendale. It’s not fair that you’re the only one who gets to play.” Sophie placed her hands on her hips defiantly. Emily suspected Sophie had started playing without any permission from their parents. Emily knew Sophie had been squirreling away her money for quite a while now, which she must have blown on a used VR set.

“Sophie…” Emily looked at her sister reproachfully. She could feel her friends’ interest as they watched the exchange in front of them and found herself wishing she could have the conversation privately. 

“You could get hurt.” Emily’s chest tightened protectively. Elvendale did an amazing job making their world feel real. Taste, touch, and even sense of smell were realistic enough to make Emily sometimes forget that it was only a video game. Emily couldn’t count the number of times she had eaten something in game that tasted and smelled so realistic that she was surprised to find herself still hungry when she logged out. Thankfully, sensations of pain were dulled, but Emily still found herself worrying about Sophie. 

Sophie didn’t appear to appreciate the sentiment. Her eyes flashed, but as she opened her mouth to respond, Farran butted in.

“So you’re Emily’s sister then? You look just like her. You even have the same small ears!” Farran laughed, and Emily instinctively clasped her hands over her ears. She could feel her face turning red.

“I’m Aira, a Wind Mage, by the way,” Aira interjected. “And the Earth Mage with no manners is Farran.”

“Hey!” Farran was clearly offended. Aira ignored him and continued.

“This is Naida, a Water Mage, (“Hi!”) and Azari, our Fire Mage (“Hey.”). It’s nice to meet you Sophie. What class are you?”

“A Light Mage!”

“Huh, just like Emily,” Azari said.

“It’s kind of funny that you’re a Light Mage too, Sophie. I think you and Emily are the only two I’ve met! It’s not a very common class.” Naida smiled warmly at Sophie. 

Emily felt a surge of fondness towards Sophie, knowing that she had picked the same class. Emily wondered if Sophie had also felt the same connection she had towards their grandmother when choosing it.

“Why isn’t it very common?” Sophie asked, tilting her head. 

“It’s because Light Mages have almost zero offensive capabilities,” Azari said bluntly. “They either have to travel in a party or pick up another weapon to fight with. They’re basically defenseless on their own.”

Emily frowned at the harsh but fair assessment of her class’s weakness. Emily didn’t mind the drawbacks, but she wondered if Sophie now regretted her choice. Hopefully not, since Elvendale didn’t allow players to reset or create a new character. 

Sophie didn’t seem too concerned, and she stood with her arms crossed, clearly unbothered by the negative aspects of the Light Mage class.

“After our quest, maybe we could take Sophie somewhere and help her level up her skills?” Farran suggested. 

“What quest? I want to go!” Sophie exclaimed, her eyes lighting up excitedly.

“No,” Emily said firmly, thinking of the trouble Sophie might get into. The entire party would be preoccupied with fighting higher level monsters, so if Sophie was separated she’d be left defenseless. 

“That’s not fair!” 

“Well, maybe we could teach Sophie how to create spell shortcuts? She could practice that while we’re gone, and we can take her out later,” Naida suggested, trying to reach a compromise. 

Emily figured it would serve as a useful distraction to keep Sophie occupied while they weren’t around…

“Spell shortcuts? What are those?”

“It’s like this,” Aira said, sweeping a hand towards Sophie. A small gust of wind ruffled Sophie’s hair a second later. “You can link physical actions to your spells, which serve as shortcuts to activate them. That way you don’t have to open your menu in the middle of battle.”

“Cool,” Sophie breathed, eyes wide. “How do I do that?”

“It’s in your settings, under ‘shortcuts.’ It should be pretty straightforward to set up once you find it.” 

Emily could tell when Sophie opened her menu, because her eyes were focused on something in front of her that the rest of them couldn’t see. It was always strange to see someone’s eyes scanning what seemed like nothing, though it wasn’t a sight Emily saw often. There wasn’t much of a reason to open the menu in Elvendale, other than to change settings or logout. And Emily was usually the first one to logout thanks to the time zone difference between her and her friends.

After a few minutes, Sophie was entirely absorbed in creating and manipulating small flashes of light with a twitch of her fingers. She wouldn’t be able to practice minor healing spells until Emily and her friends took Sophie out monster-fighting later, and Emily hoped the light spells would be able to distract her until that time. 

“Maybe we should get her a weapon so she’s not defenseless,” Azari said in a low voice, leaning in close to Emily. “I’d be willing to teach her how to use it, if you want.”

Emily flushed at the proximity. “Yeah. That’d be nice. But I’m worried she’ll use it as a reason to go looking for trouble...”

“She’ll be fine, Emily. It seems like she takes after you.”

Emily was sure her face was beet red. She cleared her throat loudly. 

“We should get going, guys,” Emily prompted, gazing over her shoulder one last time at her sister, who now seemed unconcerned with what they were doing. Emily knew the preoccupation wouldn’t last long.

“Alright, sounds good. We should go before it gets too dark out.” Farran slung his bag over his shoulder. Naida, Aira, and Azari were similarly equipped, and Emily hefted her own bag higher.

As the group slipped away through the woods, Emily could feel her body relax. Sophie showing up in Elvendale had been jarring, but adventuring with her party felt familiar and comfortable. 

As they moved further through the forest, however, Emily found herself focusing more on where she was walking. The ground was covered in undergrowth. Large, twisted roots snaked along the path, almost as if they were deliberately trying to trip up the group. Farran stumbled and tripped once, though Aira quickly pulled him back up off the ground. 

“What are we doing out here again?” Azari asked as she detangled her hair from a particularly low-hanging branch.

“We’re gathering fireweed, Azari.” 

“Yeah, but why? Naida need it for one of her potions or something?”

“Nope!” Naida chimed in, navigating around a fallen log. “It’s for Farran’s boyfriend.”

“Naida!” Farran protested, accidentally knocking into a tree with his shoulder when he turned to look at her. Emily knew that Naida was poking fun at how Tidus and Farran danced around each other despite their (obviously) mutual feelings. 

“Sorry,” Naida giggled. “It’s for Tidus, then. He needs it for his dragons.”

“I still can’t believe he managed to tame dragons.” Azari shook her head in disbelief.

Aira squealed. “I know! They’re so cute!”

Emily couldn’t believe it either, if she was being honest. Taming took a lot of skill and knowledge. And dragons were notoriously difficult to tame - Tidus was the only person she knew that had ever tamed more than one.

“It is pretty impressive,” Farran commented, fondness softening his voice. 

Emily couldn’t help but smile at that. Once one of the two actually gathered the courage to confess, she had a feeling they’d make a sickeningly cute couple.

“The fireweed should be somewhere around here,” Farran announced, scanning for any sign of it. Emily grimaced when she realized just how muddy the area was.

“Well, it looks like I’m getting a mudbath today,” Naida said as she crouched down to get a closer look.

The rest of them began to spread out a bit, though they remained in careful sight of each other. Emily wrinkled her nose at the squelching sound her feet made in the mud. When she came to a stop, Emily was surprised to find the squelching noise continue a second longer.

Emily whirled around, ready to call for the others. She froze when she saw Sophie standing in front of her, a sheepish expression on her face.

“Heya, sis.”

“Sophie,” Emily groaned, annoyed. “What are you doing here?”

Sophie opened her mouth, but before she could answer, Farran called out.

“Hey, Emily! We found the fireweed!” Emily could make out Farran’s hands waving in the air as he ran over.

“Emily, we found the-” Farran broke off, eyebrows knitting together in surprise. “Sophie? What are you doing here?”

“She’s leaving, now that we’ve found the fireweed.” Emily gave Sophie a pointed look. Sophie scowled. 

Emily sighed. “C’mon, Soph. We should get back. There will be more monsters when it gets dark.”

Luckily, Sophie didn’t protest, but she did pout when Emily grabbed her hand to pull her towards the rest of the group, Farran following behind.

“I just wanted to practice my healing spells,” Sophie mumbled defiantly, dragging her feet on the now solid ground.

“We told you we’d take you out when we got back. Why don’t you ever listen to me?”

Sophie’s eyes flashed. “I know you were just saying that so I wouldn’t come with you. You were gonna try and send me home as soon as you got back, I know it.”

The idea had occurred to Emily, but she squashed down the prickles of guilt. “No I wasn’t,” she scoffed. 

Sophie humphed but said nothing.

The walk back to their treehouse was awkward, tension hanging in the air. It was hard for Emily to focus on the roots that covered the path in front of her. So it wasn’t a surprise when she tripped, hitting the ground with a painful thud. 

Emily groaned and started to push herself up. When she got to her knees, something encircled her ankle and yanked hard. Emily let out a screech as she was lifted into the air.

A vine had wrapped itself around Emily’s ankle and was attached to a large, carnivorous-looking plant. It reminded her of a Venus fly trap but with much bigger, sharper teeth. The comparison just made her panic more, and she struggled harder until another vine wrapped around her upper torso, encasing her arms.

“Guys?” Fear made Emily’s voice high and thready. The vines around her chest constricted tightly, making it hard for her to breathe.

“Emily!” everyone cried out in unison as they moved into action. Sophie stood huddled next to a tree, eyes wide.

“Don’t panic yet!” Farran immediately rushed towards Emily, hands glowing green as he activated a spell. The pressure around her ribs lessened, allowing Emily to take in a deep breath. 

Beads of sweat trickled down Farran’s face as he concentrated. “It’s fighting me,” he grunted. “I can’t just get you out.” The strain was evident on his face.

A tendril reached for Farran, who was completely motionless as he focused, but a strong gust of air blasted it away. While Aira pushed back any grabby vines, Naida uncorked her waterskin. Azari stood protectively in front of Sophie and watched Emily with some emotion in her eyes that Emily couldn’t identify.

With Aira knocking back the remaining vines, it was short work for Naida to slice through the tendrils encircling Emily. Once she was released, Emily fell to the ground with a loud thud. 

Emily only had a moment to try and catch her breath on the ground before Azari tugged her away from the plant monster. Once everyone sprinted a good distance away from the creature, they all stopped to catch their breath.

“Thanks, you guys,” Emily said between gasps.

“No problem, Emily.” Naida smiled, but her own breathing was laboured from their escape.

“Are you okay, Emily?” Azari searched Emily’s face for any sign of injury.

“I’m fine, Azari,” Emily reassured her warmly. “But now you get why we didn’t want you to come, don’t you Sophie?”

Silence.

“Sophie?” Emily struggled to squash the feeling of panic that started to bubble up as she scanned the clearing for any sign of her sister. “Sophie, this isn’t funny. Where are you?”

Naida, Aira, and Farran immediately began scanning the trees and calling out for Sophie.

“Emily… I’m sorry... She was right behind me earlier.” Emily could practically taste the sense of guilt radiating off of Azari.

“It’s not your fault.” Emily’s throat burned, and she placed a hand on Azari’s shoulder in an attempt to reassure her. “She probably just got lost or ran off on her own.” 

Azari gave Emily a weak smile in response. Emily figured that was the best she was going to get until they found Sophie. 

“We’ll find her, Emily,” Farran said confidently. “After all, if we work together, there’s nothing we can’t do––”

Emily knew the moment Farran had realized they had already begun the search instead of hanging back to listen to his speech.

“Seriously, guys?!” he yelled as he rushed to catch up. If Emily wasn’t so worried, she would have laughed.

They were silent as they retraced their steps to where they had been attacked. Emily could only hope that Sophie was still there, hiding from danger.

“Maybe she logged out,” Naida suggested quietly. Emily hoped she was right; there wasn’t a trace of Sophie to be found in the game. 

As they searched, carefully sticking close to each other, the sky darkened. The sun had begun to set, and the trees cast dark shadows along the ground. Emily knew her chances of finding her sister would go from slim to none in the darkness.

“Hey guys? I think I’m just gonna log out and find out what happened to Sophie. It’s about time for me to go anyway.” Emily had an alarm set that would let her know when it was time for her to logout and get ready for school, and she knew it would go off in about an hour. She might as well leave the game now to soothe her fears about what happened to Sophie. It was a Friday, so she’d have plenty of time to play over the next couple of days to make up for her early departure.

“Okay, Emily. We’ll see you tomorrow, then. Let us know how Sophie’s doing next time we see you, okay?” Aira smiled at Emily. 

“Yeah, I will. I’m sure she’s fine,” Emily responded, mostly to reassure herself.

After a chorus of goodbyes, Emily logged out of the game. She sat up and pulled her head free of the helmet, shaking out her hair. When she got out of bed, the cool, wooden floorboards chilled her feet through her socks.

Slowly, she padded across her room, careful to avoid squeaking floorboards. It was rather early, and she didn’t want to wake up her parents. 

Right as her hand brushed against the doorknob, someone slowly pushed open her bedroom door from the other side.

“Sophie!” Emily struggled to keep her voice low in her surprise. “What happened? Where were you? You just disappeared!”

Emily was expecting some excuse or some retort saying that Emily didn’t need to worry about Sophie. However, Sophie stared up at Emily, eyes uncharacteristically serious.

“It was the Goblin King,” she said. “He kidnapped me!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments, kudos, and bookmarks you guys! It's definitely been a big motivator.
> 
> If you ever want to talk Lego Elves or about this AU, my tumblr is @bi-farran!

**Author's Note:**

> This was more of a short, introductory chapter, but the chapters after this should be longer and pick up the pace some. 
> 
> Feel free to come and talk about this AU or Lego Elves in general on my tumblr, @bi-farran!


End file.
